8 signs that now’s not the time to retire

by Nick on May 20, 2013

Ahh… the dreams of striking it rich – like “eff yoo” money rich… Either of you readers win over the weekend? If not, welcome back! If so and you’re still reading, remember, this blog is for sale for the rock bottom price of $600,000!

I’m not much of a lottery player (as in I don’t “play”) but I’ve been known to try and get cards to reach 21, but no further… Won a few bucks in my day and refuse to go back to the casino now because it’s MY money now. But I get the allure to buying a lottery ticket or two. I have buddies who have a “rule” that they buy either $5 or $10 worth of “tickets” when the jackpot hits $100 mil. Not me. I’d rather keep my $10.

Well, since neither of you appear to have won, you may be wondering what else you can do to retire or whether you’re ready. So I reached into the vaults of bankrate.com to bring you seven eight signs that now’s not the time to retire.

You’re just now eligible for social security. Yeah… it’s usually not a good idea to just grab social security as soon as you can… unless you don’t think you’re going to make it to 65, 67 or 70, I guess. So unless I’m incapable of surviving without it or continuing to work, my plan is to delay getting whatever social security looks like when I’m in my 60s (by then we’ll probably be looking at 70 anyhow….)

You plan to work part time. Good point, Bankrate. It’s probably easier to just keep your full time gig if you need part time income to survive because it might be tough to go back to full time. So hang on for a couple of more years until your part time gig is because you want to work, not need to.

Your spouse doesn’t want you to retire. Seriously? So far, I’m not really impressed with the list, although they make good points. If your spouse isn’t on board with retiring you’re probably going to do some serious damage by just quitting and coming home. See the word I used? I used quitting, not retiring, because if you just throw a temper fit and quit your job because you want to, that’s not retiring.

You don’t have a place to go. Um…. yep. You may need your desk to sleep under!

You’re counting on the stock market. I think they’re trying to make a subtle point here that doesn’t come through. If you need $50,000 per year to live and have $450,000 in retirement, you better hope that the stock market returns 11% per year, every year, to avoid depleting your resources. If you have $1.2 million, you’re not “counting” on the market, although you’re likely going to be able to live off off only the returns. So give yourself some wiggle room.

You haven’t planned for health care costs. Who can? I can’t even plan for this year’s health care costs!?!?! Anyhow, the point is a good one. Healthcare changes in retirement – make sure you gather knowledge before you leap.

You have financial obligations. Yeah, I guess, but who doesn’t? If you have $4 million in the bank and two kids in college, you’ll probably be OK….. So it’s not really about having the obligations, but for accounting for them to see if you’re ready.

You didn’t win the lottery over the weekend.

So there you go. I do have to admit that number 8 – the Nick original – is really the only set in stone rule, isn’t it? If you won the lottery over the weekend and have a cool $600 million in your pocket – or even whatever obscenely low lump sum amount of $370 million, netting you only about $200 mil after taxes – you’re ready to retire. If you didn’t, you’re probably not. The rest have way too much wiggle room.

Maybe I should take over Bankrate.com. I’ll have to put a few calls in.